§ 33. Mr. SkinnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the latest year-on-year figures for public sector house building; and what is the comparative figure for 1979.
§ Mr. BaldryProvisional figures show that in England in 1992 there were 20,700 housebuilding completions by housing associations and 2,900 completions by local authorities, new towns and Government Departments. The comparative figures for 1979 are 16,300 by housing associations, and 74,800 by local authorities, new towns and Government Departments.
These figures are derived from records for building control purposes. It is sometimes difficult for local authorities, or the National House Building Council, which is responsible for building control, to identify whether a dwelling is being built for a housing association or for a private developer. This may lead to an understatement of housing association starts.
In addition the figures cover only the construction of new dwellings, and exclude rehabilitation, purchases of existing stock and incentive payments made to tenants in order to release homes for reletting. If these are included, new units of social housing made available through housing associations funded by the Housing Corporation's approved development programme is expected to total 65,000 units in this financial year, together with around 5,000 units funded by local authority housing association grant and some 3,400 local authority units freed by the cash incentive scheme of grants to enable local authority tenants to become home owners.